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(04/01/08 2:53am)
The fortified Green Zone came under fresh attack Monday, less than 24 hours after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his fighters to stand down following a week of clashes with government forces. Al-Sadr’s order stopped short of disarming his fighters and left the militia intact in a blow to the credibility of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who flew to the southern oil city of Basra a week ago to personally oversee a crackdown on militia violence.
(04/01/08 2:52am)
The fortified Green Zone came under fresh attack Monday, less than 24 hours after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his fighters to stand down following a week of clashes with government forces. Al-Sadr’s order stopped short of disarming his fighters and left the militia intact in a blow to the credibility of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who flew to the southern oil city of Basra a week ago to personally oversee a crackdown on militia violence.
(04/01/08 2:52am)
The fortified Green Zone came under fresh attack Monday, less than 24 hours after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his fighters to stand down following a week of clashes with government forces. Al-Sadr’s order stopped short of disarming his fighters and left the militia intact in a blow to the credibility of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who flew to the southern oil city of Basra a week ago to personally oversee a crackdown on militia violence.
(04/01/08 2:49am)
The fortified Green Zone came under fresh attack Monday, less than 24 hours after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his fighters to stand down following a week of clashes with government forces. Al-Sadr’s order stopped short of disarming his fighters and left the militia intact in a blow to the credibility of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who flew to the southern oil city of Basra a week ago to personally oversee a crackdown on militia violence.
(04/01/08 2:23am)
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration Monday proposed the most far-ranging overhaul of the financial regulatory system since the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression.\nThe plan would change how the government regulates thousands of businesses from the nation’s biggest banks and investment houses down to the local insurance agent and mortgage broker.\nTreasury Secretary Henry Paulson unveiled the 218-page plan in a speech in the Department of Treasury’s ornate Cash Room, declaring, “A strong financial system is vitally important – not for Wall Street, not for bankers, but for working Americans.”\nThe administration’s plan drew criticism, however, from Democrats who said it did not go far enough to deal with abuses in mortgage lending and securities trading that were exposed by the current credit crisis. Some state officials criticized what they saw as unwanted federal intrusion on their turf.\nMassachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin blasted Paulson’s approach as “a disastrous backward step that would put the investor in jeopardy” because it would pre-empt state regulation of securities and insurance.\nThe administration said it planned to work with Congress to have constructive conversations, but officials would not predict when any aspects of the proposal could be enacted into law.\nAsked if Bush’s goal was to get the overhaul approved before he leaves office, presidential press secretary Dana Perino told reporters aboard Air Force One, “We’ll have to see. It is a big attempt.”\nThe plan, which would require congressional approval for its biggest changes, seeks to trim a hodge-podge collection of overlapping jurisdictions that date back to the Civil War.\nIt would give the Federal Reserve more power to protect the stability of the entire financial system while merging day-to-day bank supervision into one agency, down from five at present.\nIt also would create one super agency in charge of business conduct and consumer protection, performing many of the functions of the current Securities and Exchange Commission.\nIt would propose eliminating the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, merging their functions into other agencies.\nIt would ask Congress to establish a federal Mortgage Origination Commission to set recommended minimum licensing standards for mortgage brokers, many of whom now operate outside of federal regulation, and it would also take a first step toward federal regulation of the insurance industry by asking Congress to establish an Office of Insurance Oversight inside the Treasury Department.\nPaulson acknowledged in his remarks that most of the changes will not occur until after a lengthy debate in Congress, leaving it to the next administration to deal with the biggest changes proposed by the report. He also said the Bush administration’s focus would remain on getting through the current severe credit crisis, which has roiled financial markets since last August.\nPaulson rejected Democratic charges that it was lax regulation of mortgage brokers and the financial industry that had led to the current problems.\n“I do not believe it is fair or accurate to blame our regulatory structure for the current market turmoil,” he said. “I am not suggesting that more regulation is the answer or even that more effective regulation can prevent the periods of financial market stress that seem to occur every five to 10 years.”\nSen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he strongly disagreed with Paulson. \n“The unregulated corners of our economy did much to contribute to the meltdown in our housing market and the accompanying spillover to our financial markets,” Schumer said in a statement. “The administration’s ‘deregulation-above-all-else’ attitude helped cause the problems we now face.”
(03/28/08 2:58am)
A mother killed her two children and later went to the nearby college she attended and brandished a gun Thursday before handing the weapon to a health counselor, police said. The threat at the University of Louisville ended with no injuries about half an hour after it began, but police who were then asked by school officials to check on the children found them dead with gunshot wounds. Gail Lynn Coontz, 37, is charged with murder in the deaths of 14-year-old Greg Coontz and 10-year-old Nikki Coontz, said Louisville police Officer Phil Russell.
(03/28/08 2:58am)
DAYTON, Ohio - President Bush on Thursday defended the slow pace of progress in Iraq, asserting “it is not foot-dragging” as Iraqi politicians try to reach agreement on political, security and economic goals.\nBush derided calls from Congress for troop withdrawals or deadlines so that the military could focus more on the anti-terror battle elsewhere. “This argument makes no sense,” he said.\nBush offered his assessment of the war in a speech before a military audience of more than 1,000 people at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton.\nWithin weeks, Bush is expected to endorse the recommendations of Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Petraeus has proposed a pause in troop cutbacks to assess the impact of having withdrawn five combat brigades since December. He has argued that it would be reckless to shrink the American force so rapidly that the gains achieved over the past year are compromised or lost entirely.\nBush suggested that Iraqi officials were able to make more progress than the U.S. Congress.\n“They got their budget passed,” the president said. “Sometimes it takes our Congress awhile to get its budget passed.\n“Nevertheless some members of Congress decided the best way to encourage progress in Baghdad was to criticize and threaten Iraq’s leaders while they’re trying to work out their differences,” Bush said.\n“But hectoring was not what the Iraqi leaders needed,” he said. “What they needed was security. And that is what the surge has provided.”\nBush asked critics of Iraq’s political progress to consider the enormity of the task.\n“They’re trying to build a modern democracy on the rubble of three decades of tyranny, in a region of the world that has been hostile to freedom. And they’re doing it while under assault from one of history’s most brutal terrorist networks,” Bush said. “When it takes time for Iraqis to reach agreement, it is not foot-dragging, as one senator described it during Congress’ two-week Easter recess. It is a revolutionary undertaking that requires great courage.”\nBush was referring to comments made in a television interview last weekend by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon. He told CNN on Sunday that there has been too much “foot-dragging on key governance questions in Iraq” and that putting off troop withdrawals would only exacerbate it.\nThe president pointedly took on the Democratic case for troop withdrawals.\n“No matter what shortcomings these critics diagnose, their prescription is always the same: retreat,” Bush said. “They claim that our strategic interest is elsewhere and if we would just get out of Iraq, we could focus on the battles that really matter.”\nBut, he countered, “If America’s strategic interests are not in Iraq, the convergence point for the twin threats of al-Qaida and Iran, the nation Osama bin Laden’s deputy has called the place for the greatest battle, the country at the heart of the most volatile region on earth, then where are they?”
(03/26/08 2:57am)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A key figure in Pakistan’s new government told two top U.S. envoys on Tuesday there needs to be a change in President Pervez Musharraf’s policy of using the power of the army against Islamic militants.\nThe call came as a new prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, took office, closing the book on eight years of military rule.\nPresident Bush phoned Gilani after his swearing-in and invited him to Washington at his convenience. Gilani’s office quoted the new premier as saying Pakistan would “continue to fight terrorism.”\nBut it was clear Pakistan’s civilian rulers are rethinking counterterrorism strategy, amid concern that use of military force against al-Qaida and the Taliban has provoked a bloody militant backlash.\nPartners in the incoming coalition government have said they would negotiate with some militant groups – an approach that has drawn criticism from Washington, the source of about $10 billion in aid to Pakistan since it joined the war on terror in 2001.\nDeputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher held a flurry of meetings with Pakistani leaders Tuesday.\nTheir first talks were with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted in Musharraf’s 1999 coup and is now demanding the president’s resignation.\nSharif said he told the American envoys there was “no longer a one-man show in Pakistan” and that the new parliament – elected in February polls that dealt a crushing defeat to Musharraf’s allies – would decide after exhaustive debate how Pakistan should approach Islamic extremism.\nHe lashed out at Musharraf’s U.S.-backed policies, saying they had led to a wave of suicide bombings that killed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and many others, and argued the security of Pakistan must not be sacrificed to protect other countries.\n“It is unacceptable that while giving peace to the world we make our own country a killing field,” he told reporters. \n“If America wants to see itself clean of terrorism, we also want our villages and towns not to be bombed,” he said, alluding to recent airstrikes near the Afghan border apparently carried out by U.S. and allied forces.\nThe U.S. envoys also met with Musharraf, army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto’s widower and now chief of her party. Neither Negroponte nor Boucher made public comments on the meetings.\nZaffar Abbas, an editor with Dawn newspaper, said the visit of such a high-profile U.S. delegation was badly timed, coinciding as it did with the inauguration of Gilani as Pakistan’s 22nd prime minister.\nThat would signal to both Islamic extremists and moderates that “here are the Americans, right here in Islamabad, meeting with senior politicians in the new government, trying to dictate terms,” Abbas said.\n“The problem with the Americans is they don’t understand the domestic pressure on the new government,” he said. “People are expecting this government to explore other possibilities for a solution to what’s happening in the tribal areas.”\nThe U.S. Embassy said the visit was part of a regular dialogue and had been planned for some time. But an official at Pakistan’s Foreign Office said the trip was arranged suddenly. The official requested anonymity because of diplomatic protocol.\nThe visit could add to growing mistrust of Washington here, even among liberals and the Western-educated elite.\nThe News, the English-language daily of Pakistan’s biggest media conglomerate, published a scathing editorial Tuesday, headlined: “Hands off please, Uncle Sam.”\n“For most citizens, indications that Washington is eager to enforce its own writ in parts of the country or dictate policy decisions are highly distressing,” the newspaper said.\n“U.S.-led policies in the Middle East have contributed to the growth of hatred for the country and those it supports. Inside Pakistan, that includes President Pervez Musharraf.”
(03/26/08 2:55am)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that he cannot rule out the possibility he might boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics if China continues its crackdown in Tibet. An official from France’s state television company said the broadcaster would likely boycott the games if coverage was censored, and the European Union, United States, Australia and Canada urged China to show restraint as it tries to quell continuing unrest in its Tibetan areas.
(03/25/08 4:03am)
A longtime loyalist of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was elected Pakistan’s new prime minister Monday and immediately freed judges detained by President Pervez Musharraf. The release of the judges was a powerful symbol of Musharraf’s slipping authority since Bhutto’s party swept parliamentary elections last month. The newly elected prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, will form a new government dominated by Musharraf’s foes, who have vowed to slash the U.S.-backed president’s sweeping powers and review his counterterrorism policies.
(03/25/08 4:02am)
BAGHDAD – U.S. officials said Monday they will press forward in the fight against extremists in Iraq, a day after the overall U.S. death toll in the five-year conflict rose to 4,000.\nThe White House called the grim milestone “a sober moment” and said President Bush spends time every day thinking about those who have lost their lives in battle.\n“He bears the responsibility for the decisions that he made,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said. “He also bears the responsibility to continue to focus on succeeding.”\nThe American deaths came Sunday, the same day rockets pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide.\nNo group claimed responsibility for the Green Zone attacks, but suspicion fell on Shiite extremists based on the location of the launching sites.\nThe deaths of four U.S. soldiers in a roadside bombing about 10 p.m. Sunday in southern Baghdad pushed to 4,000 the number of American service members killed as the war enters its sixth year. Another soldier was wounded in the attack, the military said.\nThe Associated Press count of 4,000 deaths is based on U.S. military reports and includes eight civilians who worked for the Department of Defense.\n“You regret every casualty, every loss,” Vice President Dick Cheney said. “The president is the one that has to make that decision to send young men and women into harm’s way. It never gets any easier.”\nAn American military official in Baghdad said each U.S. death is “equally tragic” and underscored the need to keep up the fight.\n“There have been some significant gains. However, this enemy is resilient and will not give up, nor will we,” military spokesman Navy Lt. Patrick Evans said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done.”\nLast year, U.S. military deaths spiked as U.S. troops sought to regain control of Baghdad and surrounding areas. The death toll has seesawed since, with 2007 ending as the deadliest year for American troops at 901 deaths. That was 51 more deaths than 2004, the second deadliest year for U.S. soldiers.\nTens of thousands of Iraqi civilians also have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003, although estimates of a specific figure vary widely because of the difficulty in collecting accurate information.\nOne widely respected tally by Iraq Body Count, which collects figures based mostly on media reports, estimates that 82,349 to 89,867 Iraqi civilians have lost their lives in the conflict.\nOverall attacks also have decreased against Iraqi civilians but recent weeks have seen several high-profile bombings, highlighting the fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups.\nThe U.S. Embassy said two government employees – an American and a Jordanian – were seriously injured and six other people required medical attention after Sunday’s volley of rocket attacks.\nLocal hospital and police officials said at least 12 Iraqis were killed and 30 more were wounded in rocket or mortar blasts that apparently fell short after being aimed at the Green Zone from scattered areas of eastern Baghdad.\nThe heavily-fortified area has frequently come under fire by Shiite and Sunni extremists, but the attacks have tapered off as violence declined over the past year.\nThe attacks followed a series of clashes last week between U.S. and Iraqi forces and factions of the Mahdi Army, the biggest Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.\nAl-Sadr has declared a cease-fire through mid-August to purge the militia of criminal and dissident elements, but the militia has come under severe strains in recent weeks.\nAl-Sadr’s followers have accused the Shiite-dominated government of exploiting the cease-fire to target the cleric’s supporters in advance of provincial elections expected this fall and demanded the release of supporters rounded up in recent weeks.\nAlso Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki relieved the top two security officials in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, officials said. The move is a sign of growing concern about security in the nation’s oil capital since British forces handed over control of the city last year.\nTwo Iraqi officials said the police chief of Basra, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, and the commander of the city’s joint military-police operation, Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji, have been replaced.\nThe two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release the information.
(03/24/08 2:49am)
RAMALLAH, West Bank – A Mideast peace agreement will require “painful concessions” by Israelis and Palestinians who must work together to defeat those “committed to violence,” Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday.\nAfter meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Cheney stressed the U.S. commitment to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, saying it was “long overdue.”\n“Achieving that vision will require tremendous effort at the negotiating table and painful concessions on both sides,” said Cheney, whose stop in Ramallah came just two months after President Bush’s trip to the West Bank.\n“It also will require a determination to keep those who are committed to violence and who refuse to accept the basic right of the other side to exist,” Cheney said.\nAbbas, a moderate, controls the West Bank and is battling Hamas militants who have taken charge of the Gaza Strip from Abbas-allied forces and have bombarded southern Israel with rockets.\n“Terror and violence do not merely kill innocent civilians, they also kill the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people,” Cheney said.\nIn their meeting, Abbas asked Cheney to help stop Israeli settlement expansion and military operations targeting militants, said Saeb Erekat, an Abbas aide.\nSpeaking at the news conference, Abbas thanked Cheney for U.S. support. But he also lashed out at Israel’s settlements and checkpoints, and called for an end to Israeli military operations.\n“Peace and security can’t be achieved through settlement expansion and building barriers,” he said. To reach peace, Abbas said, “what is required is will, courage and strong support from the international community, especially the U.S.”\nIn his remarks, Cheney said, “A negotiated end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – one that addresses the legitimate national claims of both people – will have limitless value. Years of mistrust ad violence have achieved nothing, and the extremists who have stood in the way of a settlement have only caused further grief and suffering to the Palestinian and Israeli people.”\n“No one,” he said, “deserves to go through live in a climate of fear of deprivation. ... That should not be and must not be the direction of events in this region.”\nBefore the session, aides to Abbas said Abbas would tell Cheney there had been little progress in peace talks since the Palestinian leader and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to a resumption at a November conference hosted by President Bush in Maryland.\nCheney said “the future belongs to the advocates of peace and reconciliation.” He cited Bush as saying that “the establishment of the state of Palestinian is long overdue.” The Bush administration, Cheney said, will commit resources to help the Palestinians build the infrastructure necessary to prosper.\nCheney held talks with Israeli officials in Jerusalem before flying by helicopter to the West Bank. After seeing Abbas, Cheney planned a separate meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.\nThe vice president began Easter Sunday with a prayer and the singing of “Amazing Grace” at a tiny chapel in Jerusalem, then launched into a day of talks about the Mideast peace process and the rising influence of Iran in the region.\n“We are obviously dedicated to doing all we can as an administration to try to move the peace process forward, and obviously actively involved in dealing with the threats that we see emerging in the region – not only threats to Israel, but threats to the United States as well,” Cheney said in a meeting with Israel’s president, Shimon Peres.\nIt was clear that Cheney was referring to Iran. Peres was more specific, saying the declarations that Iranian President MahmoudAhmadinejad makes against Israel cannot be ignored.\n“We have this problem of the Iranians who want to build two satellites, the Hezbollah and the Hamas in Gaza. ... Nobody cancontrol us and say that declarations by Ahmadinejad are less serious,” Peres said. “We have to take it seriously.”\nHe said time is of the essence in the peace negotiations, but that he believes progress is achievable.\nCheney is on a 10-day trip to the Mideast, where oil, the future of Iraq and Afghanistan and Iran’s rising influence in the region have highlighted his talks with foreign leaders. His visit here is part of the Bush administration’s strategy to keep the pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to reach a framework agreement for peace before Bush leaves office in January 2009.
(03/24/08 2:47am)
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf hailed the start of a “new era of real democracy” in Pakistan and vowed Sunday to support an incoming government led by foes bent on diminishing his powers. “The journey toward democracy and development we started eight years ago is now reaching its destination,” said the former army strongman, who seized power in a 1999 coup. “A new era of real democracy has begun.” The U.S.-backed leader was speaking at a military parade celebrating Pakistan’s national day.
(03/21/08 3:17am)
The Dalai Lama offered Thursday to meet with Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao, but said he would not travel to Beijing unless there was a “real concrete development” in relations between the government and Tibet. Chinese officials said they would talk with the Dalai Lama on the condition that he “stopped separatist activities” and recognized Tibet and Taiwan as parts of China. The Dalai Lama has repeatedly offered to meet with Chinese leaders and has long maintained he is not seeking independence for Tibet but wants dialogue aimed at giving Tibetans autonomy under Chinese rule.
(03/21/08 3:17am)
CAIRO, Egypt – Osama bin Laden accused Pope Benedict XVI of helping in a “new Crusade” against Islam and warned of a “severe” reaction to European publications of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that insulted many Muslims.\nBin Laden’s new audiotape message raised concerns al-Qaida was plotting new attacks in Europe. Some experts said bin Laden, believed to be in hiding in the rugged Afghan-Pakistan border area, might be unable to organize an attack himself and instead is trying to fan anger and inspire his supporters to violence.\nThe Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said bin Laden’s accusation that the pope has played a role in a worldwide campaign against Islam is “baseless.” Lombardi said the pope on several occasions has criticized the cartoons, first published in several European newspapers in 2006 and republished by Danish papers in February.\nThe pope angered many in the Muslim world in 2006, when he cited a medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as “evil and inhuman,” particularly “his command to spread by the sword the faith.”\nThe pope later said he was “deeply sorry” and stressed the remarks did not reflect his own opinions. He has since led a public campaign for dialogue with Muslims.\nBin Laden’s audiotape was posted late Wednesday on a militant Web site that has carried al-Qaida statements in the past and bore the logo of the extremist group’s media wing Al-Sahab.\n“The response will be what you see and not what you hear and let our mothers bereave us if we do not make victorious our messenger of God,” said a voice believed to be bin Laden’s, without specifying what action would be taken.\nHe said the cartoons “came in the framework of a new Crusade in which the Pope of the Vatican has played a large, lengthy role,” according to a transcript released by the SITE Institute, a U.S. group that monitors terror messages.\n“You went overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings,” he said. “This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and reckoning for it will be more severe.”\nThe five-minute message, bin Laden’s first this year, came as the Muslim world marks the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday on Thursday. It made no mention of the fifth anniversary Wednesday of the U.S.-led invasion in Iraq.\nA U.S. counterterrorism official in Washington said “CIA analysis assesses with a high degree of confidence it is Osama bin Laden’s voice on the tape” and that there was “no reason to doubt bin Laden is alive.”\nThe official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the intelligence matters involved.\nOn Feb. 13, Danish newspapers republished one of the cartoons, which shows Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban, to illustrate their commitment to freedom of speech after police said they had uncovered the beginnings of a plot to kill the artist.\nMuslims widely saw the cartoons as an insult, depicting the prophet as violent. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.\nThe original 12 cartoons, first published in a Danish newspaper and then in several papers across Europe, triggered major protests in Muslim countries in 2006.\nThere have been renewed protests in the last month, though not as large or widespread. A few dozen university students waved banners and chanted slogans against Denmark on Thursday in Islamabad. The students said they had not seen the bin Laden message.\nBen Venzke, the head of IntelCenter, a U.S. group that monitors militant messages, called Wednesday’s message a “clear threat against EU member countries and an indicator of a possible upcoming significant attack.”\nTalat Masood, a retired Pakistani general and security analyst, said bin Laden was likely too isolated to organize an attack. But the al-Qaida leader might be hoping to use anger over the cartoons to inspire violence, he said.\n“Even if he has not got the capacity (to launch an attack), he will try to infuse hatred,” Masood said.\nDenmark’s intelligence agency said Thursday that bin Laden’s warnings “don’t immediately give reason to change” its assessment of the threat level against the country.\nLast week, the intelligence agency warned that reprinting the cartoon had brought “negative attention” to Denmark and might have increased the risk to Danes at home and wabroad.
(03/19/08 3:55am)
Rallying troops after an overnight stay at an air base, Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that as long as freedom is suppressed in the Mideast, the region will remain a place of “stagnation, resentment and violence ready for export.” “You and I know what it means to be free,” Cheney told the troops at an outdoor rally.
(03/19/08 3:53am)
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo – Serb demonstrators attacked international peacekeepers with rocks, grenades and Molotov cocktails Monday, setting off the worst violence in Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia last month.\nThe Serbs traded gunfire with U.N. and NATO forces in hours of clashes that wounded at least 63 U.N. and NATO forces and 70 protesters outside a U.N. courthouse.\nThe clashes began when the U.N. stormed the courthouse in the divided northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica just before dawn to pull out protesters who had occupied it for three days to protest Kosovo’s independence.\nHundreds of Serbs swarmed the area, blocking three red-and-white U.N. police vans as they moved through the angry crowd and ordering the officers to open the doors.\nAbout half of the 53 arrested Serbs went free. The rest were taken out in armored vehicles and were released by the U.N. after questioning.\nDanish military police said they came under fire from protesters and shot back as they evacuated wounded officers. Machine-gun bursts could be heard until midday, although it was not clear who was firing. At least one U.N. vehicle and one NATO truck were set ablaze.\nThe U.N. said later it was pulling out of the Serb-dominated northern half of the town because of the shooting.\nNATO helicopters hovered above the city and NATO troops remained, but the U.N. withdrawal could fuel a widespread Kosovo Serb desire to split from largely ethnic Albanian Kosovo and rejoin Serbia.\nPredominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo has been under U.N. control since 1999, when NATO launched an air war to stop Slobodan Milosevic’s crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.\nSerbia, which considers the territory its historic and religious heartland, says Kosovo’s declaration of independence was illegal under international law.\nThe Serb minority dominates about 15 percent of the territory in northern Kosovo, including about a third of Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo’s second-largest city.\n“We will protect you just like we protect the Serbs in Serbia,” Slobodan Samardzic, Serbia’s government minister for Kosovo, told the protesters.\nHe urged them to continue protesting with the goal of keeping Kosovo in Serbia. Monday’s clashes came exactly one month after that Western-backed declaration.\nOn Tuesday, Japan joined the 25 other governments, including Britain and the United States, that have already recognized Kosovo, adding that it hoped to continue friendly ties with Serbia.\n“Japan hopes that Kosovo’s independence will contribute to the stability of the region in the long term,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.\nBut Serbia remained committed to keeping Kosovo.\n“We will reach the goal only if we are patient, smart and organized and if we believe in what we want to accomplish,” Samardzic said in the clearest indication yet that Serbia’s government is orchestrating the protests.\nContributors to the NATO force said 27 Polish officers, 15 Ukrainians and about 20 French soldiers were wounded, with eight French troops taken to hospital. One of the French soldiers suffered head wounds from the explosion of a Molotov cocktail, though none had serious injuries. Authorities did not say how the other peacekeepers were wounded.\nHospital officials said most of the civilians suffered injuries from stun grenades, tear gas and explosive devices. One struck in the eye by a bullet was in critical condition.\nU.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the violence and pledged that the U.N. will continue “to take measures required to implement its mandate,” to administer Kosovo, spokeswoman Michele Montas said.\nThe European Union and many of its members expressed concern and called for restraint. Germany urged international forces to get the situation under control, and said it would “not consider the division of Kosovo as an option.”\nRussia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, whose country has close ties to Serbia, expressed “serious misgivings” about the decision by U.N. police and NATO troops to storm the courthouse in the wee hours of the morning.\n“Even if the takeover by the Serbs of the courthouse was unfortunate ... to us there are some very serious questions involved about the wisdom of such actions and lack of restraint,” Churkin said.\nSerbian President Boris Tadic accused international forces in Kosovo of “using excessive force,” and warned of “escalation of clashes in the entire territory.”\nSerbia’s Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said it was planning a joint response with Russia, Serbia’s most powerful backer. Kostunica urged the U.N. Security Council to take “necessary steps” to restore security.\nNATO’s top commander said the alliance was not planning to send reinforcements to Kosovo.\n“We are adequate for the task,” Gen. John Craddock said in Afghanistan after speaking with NATO commanders in Kosovo.\nIn the Serbian capital, Belgrade, police deployed in front of government buildings and Western embassies, apparently fearing that rioting could erupt as it did in the days after Kosovo’s declaration of independence on Feb. 17. Several thousand nationalists rallied downtown carrying Serbian flags and chanting “Kosovo is Serbia!”\nKosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said he regretted that Kosovo’s minority Serbs were allowing themselves “to be manipulated by Belgrade” into engaging in violence.\n“There will be no compromise with hooligans,” Thaci said.
(03/19/08 3:51am)
BEIJING – Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao accused supporters of the Dalai Lama on Tuesday of organizing violent clashes in Tibet in hopes of sabotaging the Beijing Olympics and bolstering their campaign for independence in the Himalayan territory.\nThe Dalai Lama urged his followers to remain peaceful, saying he would resign as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile if violence got out of control. But he also suggested China may have fomented unrest in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and nearby provinces to discredit him.\nIn striking an uncompromising line, Wen underscored the communist leadership’s determination to restore order in Tibet and Tibetan areas of neighboring provinces.\n“There is ample fact – and we also have plenty of evidence – proving that this incident was organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique,” he told reporters at his annual news conference at the end of China’s national legislative session.\n“By staging that incident, they want to undermine the Beijing Olympic Games, and they also try to serve their hidden agenda by inciting such incidents,” Wen said.\nHe said Lhasa was returning to normal and “will be reopened to the rest of the world,” but did not specify when.\nIndependent reporting from the region was impossible because of China’s tight control over information and a ban on trips to the area by foreign reporters.\nJohn Kenwood, a 19-year-old Canadian tourist who left Lhasa on Tuesday, said he saw street cleaners wearing orange vests emblazoned with the Beijing Olympics symbol.\n“When the fighting began, you saw no Chinese,” said Kenwood as he arrived in Nepal. “Now you see no Tibetans on the streets. The young Tibetans are probably hiding.”\nThe Lhasa protests, led by Buddhist monks, began peacefully March 10, the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Tibet had been effectively independent for decades before Chinese communist troops imposed Beijing’s control in 1950.\nThe demonstrations took a violent turn Friday, leaving 16 people dead and dozens injured, according to the Chinese government. The Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile in India contends 80 Tibetans died.\nThe protests have focused world attention on China’s human rights record ahead of the Olympics. The government had hoped the Aug. 8-24 games would burnish its image as a modernizing nation.\nThe Dalai Lama, speaking in Dharmsala, India, seat of his government-in-exile, urged nonviolence.\n“I say to China and the Tibetans: Don’t commit violence,” he told reporters. He suggested the Chinese themselves may have had a hand in the upheaval to discredit him.\n“It’s possible some Chinese agents are involved there,” he said. “Sometimes totalitarian regimes are very clever, so it is important to investigate.”\nIf violence spirals out of control, he said his “only option is to completely resign” as head of the government-in-exile. A top aide said later the Dalai Lama would not give up his role as spiritual leader for Tibetan Buddhists.\nU.S. officials urged China to address Tibetans’ grievances and to engage in direct talks with the Dalai Lama.\n“I do think that his statements point out the fact that he is not arguing for independence or separation from China. Quite the opposite, he is arguing for dialogue with the Chinese,” said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.\nChinese authorities pressed ahead with efforts to round up protesters in Lhasa. Witnesses said officials had been detaining people since the weekend.\nDuoji Zeren, vice governor of Tibet, was quoted on state television as saying authorities “would take determined methods to capture the primary suspects,” but no details were given.\nProtests spilled over from Tibet into surrounding provinces in recent days, as police and soldiers set up checkpoints across a wide swath of western China. On Tuesday, thousands of Tibetans flooded the streets in Seda, in the southern Chinese province of Sichuan, according to the Tibet Center for Human Rights and Democracy.\nActivist groups also circulated graphic photographs of protesters who they said were massacred Sunday by Chinese police at Kirti monastery in Sichuan province. The images showed several men who were apparently shot and bodies covered in blood. There was no way to verify the authenticity of the photographs.
(03/18/08 3:01am)
David Paterson was officially sworn in as New York’s governor on Monday, becoming the state’s first black chief executive and vowing to move past the prostitution scandal that has rocked the state Capitol. Paterson, who is legally blind, was interrupted at several times during his address with thunderous applause. “This transition today is an historic message to the world: that we live by the same values that we profess, and we are a government of laws, not individuals,” Paterson said.
(03/18/08 3:00am)
BAGHDAD - Vice President Dick Cheney, marking five years since the U.S. invasion of Iraq with an overnight stay in the war-torn nation, warned on Monday against large drawdowns of American troops that could jeopardize recent security gains.\nAt a news conference with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, Cheney said that given the nearly 4,000 U.S. troop deaths and billions of dollars spent on the war, it is very important that “we not quit before the job is done.”\nCheney, who stayed on a military base reporters were asked not to reveal for safety reasons, credited reductions in violence to President Bush’s decision to deploy an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq. In deciding whether to draw back more than the 30,000 before he leaves office, Cheney said Bush will weigh whether the U.S. can continue on a track toward political reconciliation and stability in Iraq.\n“It would be a mistake now to be so eager to draw down the force that we risk putting the outcome in jeopardy,” said Cheney. “And I don’t think we’ll do that.”\nAsked whether the progress that’s been made on the security front is an indication of more troop withdrawals after July, Cheney answered, “No, it does not.”\nPetraeus and Crocker are working on a status report on the war and will testify to Congress next month. Petraeus said discussions on the report would continue within the chain of command this week and then with the president.\n“We’re keenly aware of the strain and the stress that these extended deployments have put on soldiers and their families and we would love to draw down further, but that is dependent on conditions on the ground,” he said.\nAt the news conference, a rarity for the vice president, Cheney was asked questions ranging from Iran to oil to the upcoming presidential election.\nThe vice president brushed off President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent visit to Baghdad and said it was not widely discussed at his meetings with Iraqi leaders. “We obviously noted Ahmadinejad’s visit to Iraq,” Cheney said, adding that he did not find it surprising that the leader of a neighboring nation would visit.\nCheney said U.S. allies in the Arab world should send ambassadors to Iraq as a counter to Iran, which is seeking a greater sphere of influence in the Middle East and is accused of supporting terrorists and extremists in Iraq.\n“A number of them have indicated that they’re prepared to do it, but have not yet done it,” Cheney said.\nIn a country with the world’s third-largest known crude oil reserves, Cheney acknowledged that the declining value of the U.S. dollar was a factor in helping drive up global oil prices. He said another problem was that there was not a lot of excess capacity.\nCheney steered clear of sharing any concerns that his Iraqi hosts have about the upcoming presidential election. \n“I’m not here to sell a particular partisan view to our hosts,” he said just hours after the GOP’s expected nominee, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left Baghdad after a weekend visit.\nAsked whether he came on his third vice presidential visit to Iraq with a weaker hand because he and Bush have just 10 months left in office, Cheney said, “I don’t feel any sense of the loss of influence, if you will. If anything, the successes that we’ve demonstrated here have given us greater credibility than would have been the case if we hadn’t had the surge and the progress of the last 12, 15 months.”\nBush’s decision last January to increase troops put to rest any notion that either “here inside Iraq or in the region that people could ‘wait us out,’” Cheney said.\nCheney landed at Baghdad International Airport, then flew by helicopter into the dusty, heavily secured Green Zone for talks with U.S. military and diplomatic officials and the Iraqi prime minister. It was Cheney’s third vice presidential trip to Iraq, where 160,000 American troops are deployed and the U.S. death toll is nearing 4,000. Cheney was expected to make stops throughout the country.